[TS] Malicious Sniper

“Thank you for your hard work.”

Once again, victory was claimed in today’s scrims.

Those participating in the qualifiers were certainly high-level players.

Was it because of the rule that current pros couldn’t join this platform tournament?

No one on the opposing team gave off a vibe that they were difficult to deal with.

On days without a broadcast, my schedule consisted of just a few scrims.

It’s still the preseason, so leveling up in rank had no real meaning.

In the past, I was too busy with things to do, but these days, it feels like time is overflowing.

“I wonder how the channel is doing…”

Is there someone like Ji-hye? She was so versatile it made me wonder.

Thanks to her personality, which loved being thorough and neat, the house was always clean.

To the extent that my home before hiring Ji-hye felt like a ruin.

Ji-hye’s presence became special to me, no, it turned extraordinary.

She followed my words well, worked hard, and kept trying to do things for me.

If I didn’t develop feelings, it would be strange, and now it had become an everyday routine to fill my stomach with the food she prepared.

Honestly, even from an objective viewpoint, Ji-hye’s appearance was outstanding.

If I had my way, I’d want to happily confine her in my house for life, or rather, make her work.

Lost in such thoughts, I logged into Mutube and first searched for “Barcode.”

To check if the videos that were uploaded without my permission have been taken down.

Since I had given a warning yesterday, most of the videos should probably be down.

When I searched for “Barcode” on Mutube, many videos popped up.

Not only videos about the streamer “Barcode,” but also clips about actual barcodes.

Strangely unrelated videos also showed up in the search results.

Yesterday, when numerous videos related to me were uploaded, it seemed like a dream.

All the countless videos had vanished, leaving only one related to me.

[The highlights of ‘Streamer Barcode’ with heavenly appearance and skills / Hot Clips]

“…”

It was a title that felt strangely familiar.

A collection of highlights and hot clips that had been uploaded at least once on most Mutube channels.

With a dazed expression, I moved the mouse to watch the video uploaded by Ji-hye.

– The pet can’t chat normally, so I made it so they can’t. If you’re satisfied, please type ‘Woof Woof’.

– Did you know I was called the ‘Unknown Yone Master’? I often frequent the community, so of course, I know a post saying ‘Barcode mid is so big’!

– A question came up asking if I think I’m pretty, but honestly? I don’t know if I’m pretty.

– I’ll try to block alone. If I start by cutting off Samara, I’m confident I can win a 4v1.

…

…

…

How on earth did she compile so many scenes?

The background music suited the situation, and the subtitles made it easy to understand without being excessive.

It wasn’t an incredibly well-edited video, but it’s certain that the editing was decently done.

I had heard she had some video editing experience, but it was said to be only for a ‘brief’ period.

This level of editing skill was definitely beyond what could be achieved with just a bit of effort.

Honestly, I had expected her to just cut out the well-done parts from the full video, but the quality of the video she produced completely exceeded my expectations.

Could it be that I’m still underestimating the person named “Kim Ji-hye”?

The overall quality of the video she created was outstanding enough for that thought to cross my mind.

Having realized that Ji-hye was good at editing, I hit the back button.

No matter how good the video quality was, I didn’t want to see a video that featured me.

Returning to the Mutube main page, I looked for other videos to kill time.

There existed a custom recommendation system commonly known as ‘algorithm.’

Thanks to this system, I could find interesting videos without the hassle of searching.

“…”

But from earlier, something felt off.

Starting with the lack of interesting videos.

No matter how many times I refreshed, my channel’s video stayed at the top.

On top of that, every time I refreshed, the view count for the highlight video soared drastically.

Feeling something unusual, I re-entered the highlight video.

Then I scrolled down to check the number of comments.

[2328 Comments] [Sort by]

Content: (Add public comment)

I had just checked a moment ago, and the number of comments was around 1000.

But in that brief moment, it had increased by about 1300 comments.

After confirming the comment count, I scrolled a bit lower to check the comments.

– 28CircleGreatMage (5 hours ago)

[Barcode sis is cute, how about some upvotes?]
(1.1k Likes)
(300 Comments)

– FloweryPetal (37 seconds ago)

[Owner open the door! Owner open the door! Owner open the door!]
(0 Likes)

– MarkDottaPPAPKidSands (1 minute ago)

[When are you coming? I’m cold… When are you coming? I’m cold… When are you coming? I’m cold…]
(0 Likes)

– SubwayPregnantEomJeongSik (2 minutes ago)

[Streamer Barcode, turn on the broadcast! Streamer Barcode, turn on the broadcast! Streamer Barcode, turn on the broadcast!]
(0 Likes)

The comment section was truly a chaos,

And amidst it all, one comment caught my eye.

“Hah…”

A comment that received an astounding 11k likes.

After being prohibited from saying “cute” in the live broadcast, they had now come to leave cute comments on Mutube.

It’s like they want to do exactly what they’re told not to do. Just like me.

But the comments weren’t the important part.

Refreshing the page, the number of views, which had been 250,000, had surged to 300,000.

For views to spike this rapidly couldn’t have been solely from my broadcast viewers.

In other words, my video had caught the attention of Mutube’s bizarre algorithm.

The outcome was in stark contrast to my expectations that creating a Mutube channel wouldn’t gain much popularity.

It had only been five hours since it was uploaded, and I wondered what might happen after a day.

“Grrr…”

Anyone would get a headache when things didn’t unfold as anticipated.

I could vividly feel the throbbing headache creeping in from the situation I hadn’t expected.

It’s manageable to do live broadcasts with around 20,000 average viewers.

But imagining even more influx due to the Mutube video made my head spin.

After taking a shot at Curry in this platform tournament, I almost thought about quitting broadcasting altogether.

But with this escalation, it seemed impossible to drop it whenever I wanted.

Running away after stirring up trouble? It was only natural that troublesome issues would arise continuously.

It was already too late to clean up after myself, and at least up until now, targeting was more enjoyable than broadcasting.

Targeting or broadcasting?

It would be convenient to think I could do both.

But, as the saying goes, the longer the tail, the harder it is to catch; it would eventually be revealed that the streamer “Barcode” was the notorious targeter “Nayun Queen”.

Then suddenly, I had a thought.

What if it’s revealed that Barcode and Nayun Queen were the same person, and Curry finds out?

What kind of reaction would Curry have towards me?

Thump-!

My heart raced, echoing in my ears.

The sound refused to disperse easily, resonating several times.

I pictured Curry’s shock-stricken face in my mind.

…Maybe getting caught isn’t so bad after all?

*

Yesterday, ‘Curry Breaker’ was thoroughly defeated and lay in bed seeking peace of mind.

The image of Barcode’s Akili mercilessly shattering her Maokai as he fled filled her mind.

Still unable to get over the shock of yesterday, Curry turned away from the vibrations felt beside her.

[Manager 1 Oh Seung-hwan]

After confirming a call from her manager, Curry propped herself up and leaned against the wall to answer.

“Did you find out?”

– Yes. I looked into it as you asked, and it certainly seemed strange.

Her manager cleared his throat, seemingly choked up, before continuing slowly.

– There has never been an overlap in records between Nayun Queen and Barcode. When you first mentioned it, I honestly thought, is this guy crazy? But as I investigated, it felt eerie.

“Dive deeper into all accounts. Including Barcode’s alternate account and Nayun Queen’s alternate account.”

Her manager chuckled, confidently continuing to respond.

– I’m no slouch; I’ve checked everything. Even ‘Nayun Gongdu,’ which is thought to be Nayun Queen’s main account, and the alternate account ‘Most’ used by Barcode during the last collab match were nearly identical. Even off-meta picks like Talon, Yasuo, Yone, Leblanc, and Azhar matched. Plus, I rewatched the last collab, and while there were matches against Nayun Queen, they all dodged. It was as if ‘Barcode’ and ‘Nayun Queen’ were trying to present themselves as different individuals. Of course, that could just be my speculation.

“…Thanks for your efforts. This month’s bonus will be generous.”

– As expected of the boss! Well, then I’ll go now, I have a date with my girlfriend…

Click-

As soon as the manager turned to gloat, Curry abruptly ended the call.

Under normal circumstances, she would have exploded in anger at her manager’s bragging about his girlfriend.

But she felt so unsettled that, despite his gloating, she couldn’t muster any anger.

“How…”

How could Nayun Queen possibly be Barcode?

Though no solid evidence existed yet, by instinct, she was 100% certain.

Barcode’s willingness to gladly join her collab?

Because he had been targeting her consistently all along, as a notorious targeter.

The reason Barcode pretended to know Nayun Queen during the collab?

To subtly drop hints that Barcode and Nayun Queen were different people.

“…”

Her mind was a muddle.

Thoughts clashed chaotically.

Nayun Queen and Barcode.

Both were double-edged swords in her eyes.

While Nayun Queen was the notorious targeter, any videos related to her always garnered massive views.

Barcode, even while torturing her within the collabs, unwittingly contributed to Mutube’s growth, which had been stagnant for a long time.

The subscriber count had finally surged from 500,000, hitting 700,000 thanks to the collab.

It was too murky to label it as a wretched connection.

Yet, it felt off to refer to them as mere connections.

Hmm, were they even entities?

“Hah… I’m losing it.”

The shocking realization that Nayun Queen was indeed a girl came as a wave.

Secondly, her debut as a streamer after her history as a targeter.

Lastly, the complete annihilation she suffered in yesterday’s scrims.

Curry—who had been struck thrice with those revelations—swallowed three headache tablets whole.

In some ways, it was the perfect opportunity to free herself from “Nayun Queen” entirely.

But the issue lay in the lack of definitive proof that Nayun Queen was Barcode.

“Proof, proof…”

How would she even find the evidence? While pondering, a brilliant idea struck Curry.

The challenge was that ‘Barcode’ hadn’t been on air and ‘Nayun Queen’ had to target her.

Coincidentally, Barcode had announced a week-long break, so all that remained was for “Nayun Queen” to take her shot at targeting.

“…”

To catch the big fish, Curry canceled all her plans for today and began preparing for a broadcast.

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